A color filter using an organic material such as a pigment or a dye is typically formed on each pixel of a solid-state imaging device for color imaging. Since such a color filter allows infrared light to pass therethrough, an infrared cut filter is typically arranged along the optical path upstream of the solid-state imaging device in order to obtain a desirable color image with an imaging apparatus. Therefore, with an imaging apparatus using a single imaging device, it is difficult to simultaneously obtain both image information of visible light and that of infrared light. A color filter using an organic material has a wide wavelength band and the wavelength bands of blue, green and red overlap with one another over relatively wide wavelength bands, for example, thereby deteriorating the color reproducibility.
In view of this, in order to solve these problems, techniques have been disclosed which relate to a solid-state imaging device in which a color filter of a dielectric multi-layer film is formed (Patent Documents 1 and 2).
With a color filter using an organic material, it is difficult to form narrow-band spectral characteristics, and it is difficult to capture an image by extracting color information of narrow wavelength bands.
In view of this, a technique has been disclosed for obtaining an image by successively turning on white light and predetermined narrow-band light in order to obtain color information of narrow bands (Patent Document 3).